MF Doom
Mmm… Food (Fatbeats)
Oh man. Trying to explain the genius of MF Doom has always been quite the task, but his trademarked gritty delivery and his ability to take the most questionable loops and make them fit like a glove are unmatched. Mmm… Food lovingly carries on the tradition of its predecessor Operation: Doomsday, with the cut-and-paste comic book skits, the unquantized beats, the '80s R&B samples and Doom's uncompromising humour and wit. My favourite is the Count Bass D-produced "Potholderz," where Dwight Spitz joins Doom on the mic for one of the hottest joints of 2004. Other tunes like "Kookies," "Fig Leaf Bi-Carbonate" and "Hoe Cakes" have nothing to do with food, but are strangely satisfying just the same. Eat up. 8.5/10 (Scott C)

Jobriath
Lonely Planet Boy (Attack/Sanctuary)
Compiled and released by Jobriath's number one fan, Morrissey, this disc combines the best of the forgotten glam balladeer's two mid-'70s albums. Marketed as the American answer to Ziggy Stardust, Jobriath was a victim of hype and homophobia - his story, summarized in the booklet by his biographer, is more tragic than those of his fictional brothers Hedwig and Brian Slade. Meanwhile, his music, produced by Hendrix/Zeppelin affiliate Eddie Kramer, is part sublime, emotive and imaginative, part maudlin sub-Bowie excess, with very little rock for all its glam. Still, this is an essential fix for glitter junkies. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

The Exies
Head for the Door (Virgin/EMI)
It's crazy to think how many bullshit bands L.A. churns out these days - bands like this one. The production is overcooked, and lying under that sea of sonic manic compression is empty, soulless rock, ripe for the iPod people. It's the same old Nirvana riffs and paint-by-numbers arrangements, while all attitude is thrown out the window in favour of crunchy guitars that never breathe, while imperfections (meaning character) are nowhere to be found, just clean, gleaming, cold tunes reaching out to the radio dial. The saddest part is, if Linkin Park can move the units that they do, this shit will probably blow up. How depressing! 4/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Joseph Arthur
Our Shadows Will Remain (Vector/Warner)
Having left his New York home/studio to work in New Orleans and L.A., Arthur's fourth album sounds as large as the distance he's traveled. It wouldn't have stood out six years ago, when everyone from Limp Bizkit to Fatboy Slim to Spiritualized bore the big sound, but Arthur's multi-layered vocals, beats, strings and synths form a conspicuously hefty base for his drawling pop melodies. The potential for excess is undercut by Arthur's downer tempos and woeful wartime lyrics, achieving a kind of cavernous melancholy with occasional echoes of hope. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

The Nein
self-titled (Sonic Unyon)
The packaging for this six-song EP features two crude drawings of a man in a fedora looking over his shoulder, like Peter Lorre in the famous poster for Fritz Lang's M, and it's hardly a random motif. Fear, paranoia and politics are on the plate here, with alternately adrenal and brooding stripped-down sounds from the dark side of post-punk. The band aim low and hit hard, their clipped riffs and provocative rhythm receiving only the barest of support from haunting keyboard lines and samples. Expect an LP from this Durham, North Carolina act next year. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) With the Grey and Autumn Picture at Casa del Popolo, Thurs., Dec. 16, 9 p.m., $6

The Residents
Commercial Album (Mute)
The Residents
Commercial DVD (Mute)
This is the 25th anniversary of the enigmatic eyeballs in top hats and tails releasing their brilliant and bizarre interpretation of pop music. Forty tracks of weird and wiggly crypto-jingles, post-Elvis popular songcraft reduced to a disturbing, abstract purity. The reissue CD is nestled in a hardbound book with lyrics, plus images sourced from the DVD - and probably best enjoyed in that format. On the DVD, the original count of four, minute-long shorts that the Residents created in 1980 has been inflated, with all manner of media and manipulators thereof, to no less than 56. And dig the crazy maze that ties them together! Ah, the good ol' Residents. Still keepin' it surreal, yo. Both 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Les Abdigradationnistes
Puissance et gloire (La Tribu/Select)
This six-pack EP indicates an evolution for these local imps of the perverse. Oh, les Abdis, as their friends and impatient strangers will call the trio, still have a lyrical lock on their carefully crafted absurdity and smutty smarts. Musically, however, they're playing it more deadpan than ever. As such, Puissance et gloire is a catchy pop pastiche, aping Indochine, Lionel Ritchie and Falco, dancehall, dark wave and electroclash - an effective device for delivering what's not so much cornball comedy as its awkward cousin, potty-mouthed, pataphysical poetry for the anti-pretentious. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) At Cabaret la Tulipe, Tues., Dec. 21, 9 p.m., $10

Jay-Z & Linkin Park
Collision Course (Warner/ DefJam/MTV)
Jay-Z & R.Kelly
Unfinished Business (DefJam/Universal)
It's hard to swallow that Jay-Z, now a retired and living rap legend, has decided to spend his free time boosting other artists' careers by means of strained team-ups. The CD/DVD marrying Jay and Linkin Park, inspired by MTV's Ultimate Mash-Ups, reeks of fresh cash for all involved, lacking any real innovation other than the way it's been marketed. The rock/rap connection has probably annoyed more people than anything, and this is no exception. Jay-Z and R. Kelly are a much better fit, but you still get the feeling that this collaboration was brokered by somebody sitting in a boardroom somewhere. After Kelly's tour with Jay-Z fell apart, the slightly apathetic undertone of Unfinished Business suddenly makes much more sense. While Jay and R.Kelly both have the names, and the hits to bowl over the competition, more thought could go into what these big shots could be doing with their studio time. Collision Course 7/10, Unfinished Business 7.5/10 (Scott C)

Various
Slum Dunk Presents Funk Carioca (Mr. Bongo/Fusion III)
Guess it's official. Funk, or rather fonk as it's pronounced, is the shit for the next 10 minutes. I mean the booty variant coming out of the favelas, the hillside shantytowns of Brazil, with its crude and stupid beats, blatant thievery and blunt, retarded, horndog raps. Oh, and ridiculous wild-animal samples - bonus. The glorious nuance, texture and subtlety of so much Brazilian music is completely fucking absent in this stuff, but who cares? This shit rocks. This comp is selected by Tetine, the punky Paolista performance-art pair who host a Brazilian-beats radio show in London. Expect plenty more funk comps to follow. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Ruben Studdard
I Need an Angel (J/BMG)
Second-season American Idol champ Ruben Studdard delivers his sophomore set - a full-out gospel album - just in time for X-mas. Studdard has been compared to Luther Vandross from the jump, and although he doesn't yet have Vandross's seasoned nuances, his vocal range has a certain Luther-esque quality to it. As such, he excels with songs that allow him room to weave in and out of a melody. And while he's certainly up to the challenge of rousing gospel standards like "Goin' Up Yonder" and "Fix It, Jesus," more contemporary gospel material, like the Marvin Winans-penned "Restoration," really allows Studdard to find his own voice. 7.5/10 (Gerard Dee)

David Allan Coe
The Essential (Columbia/Sony)
When it comes to outlaw country, it doesn't get much rowdier than David Allan Coe. Having spent most of his life in prison, Coe grew up hard and mean, but all of those years in the pokey forged one of country's most honest songwriters. This greatest-hits package touches on Coe's amazing tears-in-the-beer heartbreakers ("The Walls of the Bottle," "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile," "Would You Lay With Me"). But dig his rootin', tootin' delivery on "If That Ain't Country (I'll Kiss Your Ass)," and when he sings, "I've won every fight I've ever fought" on "Longhaired Redneck," y'know he's not fucking around. Coe makes new country seem so disposable, it's ridiculous. 8/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Golem
Homesick Songs (Aeronaut)
While much of the neo-klezmer movement in NYC has taken an off-putting, difficult avant-garde tack in revitalizing the often frenzied Jewish folk music, the sextet Golem do the opposite. The dozen songs here, which suggest a wide-ranging roll through "the old country" - Odessa to Romania, Bialystok to Turkmenistan - are consistently delivered with an engaging, rough-and-tumble rock 'n' roll backbone. Moreover, an enthusiastically irreverent, rascally spirit pervades Homesick Songs, playing perfect counterpoint to the devoted research and refinement that clearly went into the record. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Claire Daly
Heaven Help Us All (Daly Bread)
A superb saxophonist, particularly on the baritone, Ms. Daly has vast experience including recordings with Lodi Carr, the Diva big band and Joel Forrester's group People Like Us. This solo effort follows two earlier sessions released by Koch, Movin' On and Swing Low. Here she's joined by the group Solar, and guests including Warren Smith on vibes. The composers represented include Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eli Yamin, Harold Arlen and Burton Lane. Lots of great playing to feast on here. 10/10 (Len Dobbin)

Mini CD Reviews

Jody Sandhaus A Fine Spring Morning (CAP) A wonderful outing by an excellent singer, backed by hubby Peter Maliverni's trio, she "likes the sunrise" to "picnic" with "Lola." 9 (LD)

Earl Zinger Speaker Stack Commandments (!K7/Fusion III) A snappy sonic puppet show for consenting adults, underscored by a now-sound-of-whenever mutant funk. Fun! 8 (RB)

Kimya Dawson Hidden Vagenda (K/Secretly Canadian) With that same sweet bedroom-recorded sound, this ex-Moldy Peach has gained new confidence and a macabre edge. 7.5 (LC)

Johnny Dowd Cemetary Shoes (Bongo Beat) If Richard Hell ever took a stab at roots music it would sound like this. 7 (JC)

Robyn Hitchcock Spooked (Yep Roc) Gillian Welch gives Hitchcock a leg up on his latest set of lovely but sometimes lukewarm folk songs. 7 (LC)

Medina Green "Niggas Know"/"Summertime" 12" (Draft/Illson) Mos Def's crew is back with something a little less appetizing than MG's past efforts. 7 (SC)

Various Guitar Heroes (Atlantis) The inclusion of Steve Lukather and Buddy Guy almost makes this worthwhile. Almost. 5 (JC)

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